Category Archives: Incarnation

Scotty Smith provides a Christmas Eve prayer, that is true on Christmas Day and every other day, as well.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was room in the inn available for them. Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)

Lord Jesus, whether or not you entered our world anywhere near our December 25th is irrelevant. What matters is that you actually came from eternity into time and space—not as a metaphor, myth, or legend, but as our incarnate Creator, perfect Savior, and glorious King.
Any other king would’ve come with great fanfare and a royal entourage, seeking to impress. But you came into our world in utter humility and profound weakness, seeking to save. Every other king was once a baby. You’re the only king who reversed the order and became a baby.
“No room in the inn” wasn’t an insult to you. It was your choice, your way—the essence of the gospel. After 33 years of life, it is you who made room for the cross. We bow in awe.
Indeed, you didn’t consider your equality with God something to be selfishly hoarded. Rather, you made yourself “nothing.” You emptied yourself by becoming one of us—fully man, yet never ceasing to be God.
As the Second Adam, you fulfilled the law for us. As the Servant of the Lord, you died in our place. As the Grave Robber, you rose for our justification. As our Glorious Bridegroom, you’re coming back for us. Hallelujah… we cry, over and over and over.
On this Christmas Eve, we worship you for coming to us, Jesus, and giving yourself for us. Thank you for saving us from our sins and selves. Thank you for ruling the world with your truth and grace, this very moment. Thank you for committing to make all things new and wiping all tears away. So very Amen we pray, in your great and gracious name.

Aaron Wilson reflects on the idea that if the incarnation of God in the birth of Jesus is an amazing idea, then the implication that God was incarnate in a collection of cells some nine months earlier is mind-boggling.

Nine months before Christmas morning, Jesus went from ruling the world in heaven with His Father and the Holy Spirit, to enter into the smallest, most dependent, most microscopic form of human life.
The God who authored a universe that can’t be measured, humbled Himself into a form that can’t be seen.
It’s a staggering thought.
The God who authored a universe that can’t be measured, humbled Himself into a form that can’t be seen.Even more mind-boggling is the fact that there was a time when the incarnate spirit of Jesus was in an embryonic human form that hadn’t yet grown eyes, fingers, a brain, or even a spinal cord.
Even Christ’s holy blood cells that would later be shed to save humanity, first had to be formed by a yolk sac inside of Mary’s womb.
In the months leading up to Christmas, Jesus—who formed the world and invented human reproduction—was Himself being formed inside one of His creations through the very blueprints He had established for human development.

HE HOLDS ALL THINGS TOGETHER
As you’re pondering these truths, consider Colossians 1:16-17 as it speaks of Jesus:
“For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”
Doesn’t this truth make the incarnation all the more amazing? For a moment in time, the entire universe was being held together in the form of a microscopic, two-celled human embryo named Jesus.

35.Q. What is the meaning of: “Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary”?A. That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took upon himself our true manhood from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary through the action of the Holy Spirit, so that he might also be the true seed of David, like his fellow men in all things, except for sin.

36.Q. What benefit do you receive from the Holy conception and birth of Christ?A. That he is our Mediator, and that, in God’s sight, he covers over with his innocence and perfect holiness the sinfulness in which I have been conceived.

33.Q. Why is he called God’s only begotten Son, since we also are God’s children?A. Because Christ alone is God’s own eternal Son, whereas we are accepted for his sake as children of God by grace.

34.Q. Why do you call him our Lord?A. Because, not with gold or silver but at the cost of his blood, he has redeemed us body and soul from sin and all the dominion of the devil, and has bought us for his very own.

31.Q. Why is he called Christ, that is, the Anointed One?A. Because he is ordained by God the Father and anointed with the Holy spirit to be our chief Prophet and Teacher, fully revealing to us the secret purpose and will of God concerning our redemption; to be our only High Priest, having redeemed us by the one sacrifice of his body and ever interceding for us with the Father; and to be our eternal King, governing us by his Word and Spirit, and defending and sustaining us in the redemption he has won for us.

32.Q. But why are you called a Christian?A. Because through faith I share in Christ and thus in his anointing, so that I may confess his name, offer myself a living sacrifice of gratitude to him, and fight against sin and the devil with a free and good conscience throughout this life and hereafter rule with him in eternity over all creatures.

16.Q. Why must he be a true and righteous man?A. Because God’s righteousness requires that man who has sinned should make reparation for sin, but the man who is himself a sinner cannot pay for others.

17.Q. Why must he at the same time be true God?A. So that by the power of his divinity he might bear as a man the burden of God’s wrath, and recover for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

18.Q. Who is this mediator who is at the same time true God and a true and perfectly righteous man?A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given to us for complete redemption and righteousness.

19.Q. Whence do you know this?A. From the holy gospel, which God himself revealed in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, afterward proclaimed through the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed through the sacrifices and other rites of the Old Covenant, and finally fulfilled through his own well-beloved Son.

Chapter 8 – Of Christ the Mediator Cont.(Paragraphs 3-5)III. The Lord Jesus in his human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure; having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell: to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety. Which office he took not unto himself, but was thereunto called by his Father; who put all power and judgment into his hand, and gave him commandment to execute the same.IV. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake, which, that he might discharge, he was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it; endured most grievous torments immediately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified and died; was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day he arose from the dead, with the same body in which he suffered; with which also he ascended into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of his Father, making intercession; and shall return to judge men and angels, at the end of the world.V. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto him.